The incidental cause does not directly produce the natures, but removes obstacles, like a farmer opening irrigation channels.

Patañjali offers an illuminating metaphor: the farmer does not create water nor make plants grow. They simply open channels so water flows where needed.

Similarly, yogic practices do not create illumination nor manufacture siddhis. They only remove the varaṇa (obstacles, coverings) that impeded the natural flow of consciousness.

Nimitta, the instrumental or incidental cause, prepares conditions. Real transformation occurs through the very nature of prakṛti when its blockages are released.

This teaching is profoundly liberating: we don’t need to build something we lack. We only need to clean what obscures our essential nature.

The yogī’s effort is work of removal, not acquisition.